Why is digital marketing important?
With technological advances, there are many changes that digital marketing has experienced. Among them, the way in which we communicate, promote and acquire products and services stands out. Being networks, email marketing and positioning strategies, avant-garde techniques of wide impact that involve different activities and areas of specialization.
For SMEs and freelancers, this is of the utmost importance. Well, digital marketing allows you to create direct, interactive and profitable advertising campaigns that can be directed to a local destination with the possibility of scaling up to a large scale.
However, all promotion and sales techniques require special care, in addition to other research and business management methods. For this reason, today we will talk about digital marketing as a fundamental tool for companies.
Make yourself comfortable, because next we will share ESEM’s super digital marketing guide
What is Digital Marketing?
Before getting into the matter, let’s talk about digital marketing as a concept. As a starting point, digital marketing is the set of strategies aimed at communication and online marketing of products and services.
Today, it is the main means by which companies and freelancers connect directly and personalized with the potential client. In the same way, it should be noted that digital marketing is not a substitute for traditional marketing, but rather a value supplement that has led to the evolution of global trade.
With more than half of the world’s population active on the Internet, digital marketing is the most profitable and viable way to develop new forms of business. Since all the efforts are arranged in an online ecosystem that is increasingly used and accepted by the consumer.
Just as there is a natural ecosystem that connects us with others, there are also ecosystems in the digital world. Understanding this environment provides the opportunity to organize and implement good strategies for the positioning of products and services. So digitizing in the midst of a technological age must be part of our strategic planning if we really want to achieve business success.
Digital ecosystem
Digital marketing starts, therefore, from the digital ecosystem itself. This includes digital tactics that manage to benefit companies in terms of:
· web traffic
· Converting visits to leads
· Lead Qualification
· Optimizing interaction with prospects
· Sales increase.
On a large scale, the digital ecosystem comprises the process of internal adaptation of companies around the network of collaborations necessary to facilitate the acquisition of goods and services. In this way, through computer technology, it is possible to generate online interaction between companies, partners and consumers, generating benefits for all.
This, combined with traditional marketing, offers verifiable competitive advantages that even influence the company’s organization, and can even achieve a first-class service that provides effective solutions within the market.
In summary, a well-structured digital ecosystem serves to position and control the form of communication that we use to promote our commercial brand.
Elements of a digital ecosystem
Before implementing any marketing strategy you must improve your digital ecosystem. This includes website, branding, social networks, SEM, SMM and SEO, metrics, conversion and blog as essential elements of a properly planned online management.
· Website: All part of the website. Well, it is your letter of introduction and the central point of all the digital tactics to implement. The website is, in other words, the engine of your brand or business online and even offline. Since it is the site where customers can corroborate your experience, commitment and reliability of the service.
· Blog: If the website has an informative blog that at the same time stimulates interaction on the official website. The idea of a blog is, of course, to solve queries, offer interactive information and optimize to increase visits.
· Social networks: Social networks are very powerful tools today. Since they allow a much more direct interaction with your target audience and potential customers.
· Branding: Brand strategies related to communication channels.
· SEM, SMM and SEO: Positioning and monetary investment for digital media. Fundamental pillars of the new digital marketing strategies.
· Metrics: Use of indicators or KPIs to define the course of marketing strategies with objective foundations.
· Conversion: Part of your landing page or landing page. From there, customers will be guided through the entire process that involves a sale through contact formats, lead nurturing and emails. This process, it should be noted, allows you to attract, inform and delight prospects.
Reasons why is digital marketing important?
In a new modern era, companies face multidisciplinary challenges that, if not overcome, spell the end of any booming business project.
Hence the importance of applying specialized techniques that yield quantifiable results in a given period. With this in mind, the competent study of marketing strategies not only offers a clear vision of the tools to be implemented, but also allows savings, optimization of processes, increased productivity of the company , personalization of commercial proposals, etc. .
Other of the many benefits for companies can be summarized as follows:
· Measurement: Online marketing strategies can be measured much more easily than traditional marketing strategies.
· Brand visibility: Online positioning increases brand visibility.
· Personalization: Through market segmentation and other techniques, it is possible to personalize marketing campaigns in favor of your target audience.
· Recruitment and loyalty: Digital marketing can attract potential customers and retain current customers.
· Community: Thanks to the power of networks, it is possible to create much more direct and interactive communication channels that allow connecting with customers.
· Profitability: Online strategies are much more profitable than traditional advertising. However, together, they are very powerful tools of great scope and business consolidation.
· Ease of monitoring: The tools facilitate constant monitoring of network activities in order to check the success of strategies and compare results if, in any case, different strategies are implemented in different ecosystems. For this reason, KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) are becoming increasingly important in the digital ecosystem.
· Approach to your brand image: Digital marketing allows you to build a brand reputation, optimizing the approach to it and improving the relationship with our target audience.
· Impact to more people: By facilitating the implementation of marketing strategies, the impact of a good advertising campaign can influence a large number of people.
· Make adjustments easier: Digital marketing also allows for more control over the content of campaigns, meaning errors can be edited more easily and at virtually any time.
· Optimizes business survival: Having an online business means taking advantage of the tools of the online ecosystem to continue promoting and selling products and/or services in case of problems with our physical business.
Consumer acceptance versus digital marketing
Years ago, trusting the Internet was quite a challenge. Today, as consumer acceptance is greater and economic needs have changed, the level of security regarding purchases and sales in the online environment is also greater.
· 59% of adults ages 18-29 use Instagram.
· On average, a person can spend at least 20 minutes on Facebook per day.
· 86% of users consult opinions on social networks before making a purchase.
· In Spain, 80% of people look for products online before buying it.
Without a doubt, the data speaks for itself and it is the responsibility of the entrepreneur to know how to adapt to the new needs of the modern consumer. But, even with the great access we have to the network, digital marketing is not a discipline to be taken lightly. Well, the commercial success of a promising company depends on it.
Therefore, if you are one of those who want to professionalize to take charge of your business or, failing that, find or get promoted in a job, we advise you to take the master’s degree in business management and digital marketing from EyeT. Without a doubt, a unique opportunity that will allow you to enhance your skills in record time.
How to make digital marketing strategies?
As we have already indicated, online marketing is the set of actions that are implemented to promote specific products and services. Therefore, we are talking about multidisciplinary activities that require different types of strategies, monitoring and control when starting any action plan.
In other words, carrying out effective marketing strategies derives from the knowledge we have about the multiple disciplines that respond to a specific marketing plan.
Therefore, like all part of the strategies that give visibility to commercial projects, we must start with the prior definition of the objectives and the knowledge we have about the audiences.
The following steps below offer a better idea of what it is like to implement a digital marketing strategy.
Create a Digital Marketing Benchmark to define and compare performance. It starts with a performance test to identify and compare measurable digital practices against the competition. Some aspects to evaluate may be:
· Market sector.
· Usability of a web page.
· Creation of a blog and topics of interest.
· Use of social networks.
· Keywords.
· Definition of the best digital practices according to the market sector.
Define the objectives of the strategy
The general objectives must be measurable and must be complemented by the corporate objectives. In this sense, we can define two types:
1. Business-oriented goals:
· Strengthen the brand.
· Increase sales.
· Get prospects.
2. Customer-oriented goals:
· Improve customer service.
· Improve customer knowledge.
· Improving customer satisfaction.
· Loyalty customers.
Audience Identification
Identify your audience based on:
· Age range.
· Economic level.
· Education level.
· Place of residence.
· Interests.
· Personality.
· Lifestyles.
· Gender.
· Marital status.
Business diagnosis
Identify the current status of your project. To achieve this, evaluate the main marketing strategies:
· Usability and conversion of the website.
· Positioning in search engines (SEO).
· Social Media Marketing.
· Email Marketing.
· Online advertising.
· Influencer marketing.
How to create a digital marketing plan?
No strategy can be successfully developed without a professional digital marketing plan. Take into account that the marketing plan encompasses the strategies that we will carry out in the online world. So scheduling by dates is essential.
Establish your mission as a company
Establish the corporate mission of your business. This includes defining your proposal as a brand. Since, it is important to be very clear about the message that we want to convey through the brand image.
Analyze the market
Analyze in depth the market of your sector. This way you will know the context and how your commercial brand is developed, this will give you a much broader vision of its performance and position in relation to the competition.
In this way you will take better advantage of the opportunities and you will be able to act in accordance with the proposed objectives.
Define your buyer person
Develop a representation of your potential customer. How? Well, simple:
· Analyze consumer behavior.
· Study their demographic information.
· Identify motivations and needs.
But, it should be noted that to make a realistic portrait of the audience, you need to gather objective information from questions such as:
· What do you work on?
· What labor sector do you belong to?
· What is your training?
· Where you live?
· What challenges do you face every day?
· What are your fears?
· What solutions do you need to achieve?
· What doubts arise when trying to execute those solutions?
Sociodemographic aspects are fundamental in this process. Well, they complement the study regarding behaviors, work life, personality and behavior on the network. Therefore, all these aspects can help us define the profile of the ideal client.
In addition to this, the following questions to answer are:
· What activities do you do in your free time?
· What are your aspirations and motivations?
· What would you change about your job to be happier?
· What media and books do you usually read?
· In which social networks are they most active?
Collecting all this information allows you to draw a much clearer profile that can be enriched as you identify the interests that motivate the consumer to purchase products and/or services related to a specific market sector.
By understanding the behavior and needs of the consumer according to their profile, you will be able to draw up an effective marketing plan.
Define your business goals
With the above information already collected, outline your business objectives based on the SMART methodology:
· Specifics.
· Measurable.
· Achievable.
· Relevant.
· Temporary.
Guides the strategies to follow and defines the action channels
Once our buyer persona, the target market and the SMART objectives have been defined, the next step will be to outline the marketing strategies. Yes, finally after a long road, we will be able to take decisive action directed at our public.
And to achieve this, nothing better than communication channels as means of action. Due to the nature of digital marketing, the actions can be unlimited, although it is important to choose based on our objectives and budget.
So what channels to use?
· Social networks.
· Web page.
· Email marketing.
· Online advertising.
· Video marketing.
· Influencers.
Schedule and schedule actions
Organize a calendar with the actions you will carry out. This calendar must include:
· Title of the project.
· Deadlines.
· Name of the work team.
· Relevant comments and suggestions.
Implementation of a digital marketing strategy
Now that you are clear about the guidelines to follow, it is time to talk about the basic implementation of a digital marketing strategy. In general, this is what you need:
· Have a web page: Create a light and optimized web page or landing page that allows you to offer quality content, as well as offers, promotions and specialized services. Web pages are everything for a commercial brand. Well, that’s where most of the strategies for capturing, positioning and promoting products start.
· Web traffic: As we have indicated, the actions implemented on your website must attract organic and inorganic traffic to your website. And this is achieved with nothing more and nothing less than SEO and SEM.
· Keywords: To optimize, improve web positioning and increase the number of visits, analyze the keywords that respond to your market sector. The correct selection of keywords will allow you to create interactive articles of informative quality.
· Social Media: And last but not least, social media. That the actions are directed towards your official social networks. Well, they are direct communication channels that create interaction and connection between users and brands.
4 important factors to launch a digital marketing campaign
If you have reached this point, you must be very clear that the correct management of a professional marketing campaign deserves a budget.
In this way, based on your initial budget, it will be necessary to take into account the following 4 factors of a professional launch:
· Usability: The web pages or landing page must facilitate the purchase conversion. Therefore, its interface must be very intuitive and practical for the user. Therefore, check the usability of your website before starting promotional campaigns.
· Templates or graphic design: The aesthetics of the design is fundamental both in a web page and in a digital marketing campaign. In this sense, graphic design must adequately represent your brand image.
· Search engines: Optimization and positioning are an important part of the performance and profitability of a booming online project. As we have already said, the answer lies in the advantages offered by SEO and SEM as potential tools.
· Promotion: Take advantage of the great potential of Social Ads or network advertising. Integrate branded content and content marketing as part of your network marketing actions, always with a good brand design at the forefront.
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